Soweto shadows

June 19, 1980

South Africa's efforts to restrict commemoration of the Soweto race riots have been followed by what is described as the worst violence since those very clashes four years ago. We deplore any incitement to riot by the press, something charged against some unnamed foreign reporters by South African police. But it was short-sighted of the authorities to go on to bar all foreign journalists from the scenes of trouble and to limit the access of even the local reporters.

Such tactics only raise suspicions about the conduct of officials seeking to be screened from outside observers. They smack of that repression for which the South African government has recently been censured again by the United Nations. The problems of South Africa can be solved, and sooner in daylight than in darkness.